Fumbler's Café

Quincy wrote:Hi Everyone,

Is this new album definitely all Christmas based songs, an album of new stuff, or, a mixture of both??

Do we know when it's going to released yet?? I want to tell Santa in plenty of time what I want in my stocking!! And yes, my mind is regressing!!

Q

The album features classics such as "Silver Bells" reimagined into a shimmering, orchestrated picturesque tale as well as "Angels We Have Heard On High," a percussive hymn of adoration and Randy Newman's forlorn "Snow" from the 1960s. Emmylou Harris contributes vocals on "Go Tell It On The Mountain", also featuring Martha Wainwright, and "Away In A Manager," a new holiday song reinvented as a country shuffle.

Members of Canadian quartet, Half Moon Run, play on five tracks and helped McLachlan flesh out some of the arrangements, including "Huron Carol," Canada's oldest Christmas song. "They're all in their mid-to-late 20s. They're incredible musicians," McLachlan says. Rounding out the guests is the world famous Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, who perform on three songs, including "Let It Snow," "Silver Bells," and "Huron Carol." McLachlan enlisted orchestral arranger Brian Byrne to handle the particulars. "We had decided early on that it would be great to have string arrangements," McLachlan says. "We left some space for that and sent the arrangements to him and said 'Work your magic.' He did."